Back in 1985 one of the quirkiest and best remembered shows of the decade emerged, The Beiderbecke Affair, written by the excellent Alan Plater starred James Bolam and the quietly sexy Barbara Flynn as two schoolteachers, Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne, who find themselves caught up in a conspiracy involving corrupt local government when Trevor buys some mail order jazz records by the legendary Bix Beiderbecke.

With deliciously witty dialogue, groovy jazz music and a first rate cast (including the all time great Colin Blakely) The Beiderbecke Affair was a huge hit with viewers and couple of years later a two part follow up emerged, The Beiderbecke Tapes saw the dynamic duo receive a recording of a meeting in which plans to discuss the dumping of toxic waste in the Yorkshire dales are heard, again the excellence factor is high with Beryl Reid making a great guest appearance. The following year saw a final outing for Trevor and Jill in the four part Beiderbecke Connection in which they tried to help a Russian refugee who turns out to not be all he seems.

The roots of the show actually lay in an earlier serial (1981) written by Plater and called Get Lost (included here in this superlative 6 disc box set), this is basically the Beiderbecke Affair in all but name and features Alun Armstrong and Bridget Turner as two school teachers – woodwork and English as in Beiderbecke – who turn detective when Turner’s husband goes missing. With the same groovy music and brilliant ear for dialogue and quirky characters this is genuinely the equal of any of the Beiderbecke.

Network definitely have to be applauded for including this four parter in the box set, as major fans of the series we have long wanted to have a look at Get Lost, clearly Plater knew he was onto something good with the format so its no surprise that the two shows are so similar.

This new box set definitely qualifies as must have material, 6 discs, 5 of which feature the three Beiderbecke serials and the four part Get Lost and a companion audio cd of music from the series performed by Frank Ricotti and his orchestra. Add to that of course Network’s usual commitment to quality extras and you have one of the releases of the month.

extras
The aforementioned Get Lost serial, special booklet by the always informative Andrew Pixley; vintage interviews with Bolam, Flynn and Plater and the excellent soundtrack CD.

Dave Saint Show, The (UK Play 2000, John Thomson, Alexander Kirk)

The Dave Saint Show was a comedy about a useless heavy metal DJ on a local radio station. As was usual with with shows on extra terrestrial channel UK Play music videos were interspersed throughout the show.

Game of Thrones Season Six Opener reviews from around and about

Assorted reviews from the interweb of the season six opener for Game Of Thrones.

Game of Thrones is back, with a premiere full of shocks, bloody acts and creepy reveals – but no definite answer about the fate of Jon Snow.

Season six is the first time the TV series has moved ahead of George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series, so even dedicated readers have no idea what will happen. Reviewers say the first episode, The Red Woman, resolved some of the cliffhangers from the last series, but also has a few shocks in store, including one very creepy reveal involving a leading lady.

“The tension was incredible,” says Ed Power in the Daily Telegraph.

Season six opened with the camera swooping low over Castle Black and pausing on noble Jon Snow after his bloody run-in with the traitorous Night’s Watch.

“Alas, the Bastard of Winterfell (Kit Harington) was, for the time being at least, staying very dead indeed,” says Power. This was confirmed by “a haunting close-up of his waxy visage and the pool of scarlet arranged like a skewed halo”.

Short of spelling out: “He’s dead!” in huge flaming letters, the writers couldn’t have driven the point home harder, adds the critic, who asks whether this was “a sadistic riposte to fans” who have waited a year to see if their heart-throb will return or “a sleight-of-hand intended to make his eventual reappearance all the more dramatically satisfying”.

Christopher Hooton in The Independent writes: “The last season of Game of Thrones didn’t so much end on a cliff-hanger as a splat on the beach below. Jon Snow is unequivocally dead,” or so we’ve been repeatedly told over the past few months.

However, he adds, the sheer amount of screen time given to his body “suggested more than just a ‘funeral then we all move on with our lives’ narrative”.

With the “obligatory Jon Snow death check” out of the way, this episode was mostly about setting up the playing field for the rest of the season, continues the critic.

Indeed, it was “a sombre, sturdy opening”, says Matt Fowler on IGN. While “not a high watermark for the show”, the series’ opener resolved some cliff-hangers and included “a big creepy reveal regarding Melisandre right at the end”.

It also set up the pieces on the chessboard and managed to touch upon just about every character in the ensemble, says the journalist, a much easier task these days, “now that the herd is so thin”.

Yes, it was a “table-setting episode”, says Daniel Fienberg at the Hollywood Reporter, as premieres are supposed to be. The episode did what it needed, putting this mammoth locomotive back on the track.

Being Game of Thrones, however, there were a few shockers, including some gory violence and nudity that is “more shocking in its narrative ramifications than its gratuity or titillation”. And while the answer to Snow’s wellbeing comes quickly, says Fienberg, “it needn’t necessarily be permanent, because what things are?”

WHAT’S IT ABOUT THEN?
The Columbo releases from Universal are now upto the third season and of course by now it is full steam ahead as Columbo really hits its stride, of course the basic premise of the show dictates that we know who the killer is right from the get go but by the third season the audience was lapping up the way the Superlative Peter Falk as Lt Columbo doggedly pursued

his villain who were always lulled into a false sense of security by Columbo’s grubby mac, battered old car and down at heel demeanour, all tactics designed to throw the suspect off guard before he lets them know that he knows they did it.

Spread over two double sided discs this nicely put together set features all 8 feature length season three episodes, Columbo’s cases include the mysterious death of a well known author, a country singer who is prime suspect in a murder case, he also finds time to uncover police corruption and political skullduggery. Columbo also always managed to attract a high level of guest and this series includes the legendary Johnny Cash in the episode Swan Song as well as the likes of

Jose Ferrier, Vincent Price, Martin Sheen, Dana Elcar and Robert Culp. A classy slice of 1970’s Tec TV Heaven, Columbo always entertains and should be on any Classic TV fans must have list.

ANY SPECIAL FEATURES?
There’s a great bonus episode from the series Mrs Columbo (which many have claimed isn’t a spin off from Columbo but having now seen an episode it clearly is) this is called Murder Is A Parlour Game (from 1979) and features Kate Mulgrew as Kate Columbo, journalist on a small local paper and married to a never seen Lt Columbo, she investigates when a suicide case appears to be murder, the excellent Donald Pleasance guest stars, this is great fun and is hopefully a precursor to the whole series getting a release.

Please note: This article predates the published date and is from the old HTML version of Memorable TV and is part of our From The Archives collection.